Is Durant the missing piece for the Celtics?

Therefore, Boston’s management decided to seek a trade with the Brooklyn Nets to receive Kevin Durant and with that, take that small step they lacked to win the title.

Boston offered to include in the trade Jaylen Brown and up to three unprotected first-round picks (2025, 2027 and 2029), and two draft order trades (2024 and 2026).

The Nets did not accept the deal, but Boston does not seem determined to give up.

What challenges do the Celtics face?

1- What’s keeping the franchise up at the moment?
Brad Steven’s first season as general manager has been a success after reaching the Finals. However, there is one issue that surely concerns him: the future of Jaylen Brown.

The forward has two seasons left on his contract, but the problem is that it is not a maximum contract. When that happens, the player is better off playing until it expires, becoming an unrestricted free agent, testing the market and seeking a max contract with Boston or another team, than seeking an extension now.

The risk of losing Brown in free agency in the summer of 2024 should certainly concern Brad Stevens, especially if the forward continues to evolve as a player and become a key piece of the team as he was in the season that just ended. A player who in the playoffs averaged 23.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and hit 37.3% of his three-pointers can be very attractive to any team.

Perhaps this future problem is one of the reasons that leads Boston to think that going for Kevin Durant by offering Jaylen Brown as the centerpiece of the change is a good idea (Marcelo Bousquet).

2- What is the Celtics’ main unfinished business?
Undoubtedly, winning the championship.

Since 2008 this historic NBA franchise has not won the title and although they are getting closer and closer, they have lacked, as they say, that fifth for the weight.

But in order to return to the Finals, there is a previous issue. To stop being their own enemy.

Not only last season, but in other seasons in which they reached the playoffs and even in the regular season, Boston was their own enemy and let advantages, results and victories slip away due to unforced errors, for not making the right decision or executing the right shot and the right play.

Once Ime Udoka’s team achieves that degree of focus they will be closer to accomplishing the goal of winning the franchise’s 19th title. And focus brings us to something else: the commitment of its stars.

At least in the past Finals against the Golden State Warriors, a greater contribution was expected from their ‘Big Three’, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart. Of the three, only Brown was consistent in the series. Tatum disappeared in at least three games and Smart left many doubts about his appointment as DPOY. If the three of them who are the pillars of Boston do not have a similar performance in the season and playoffs the Celtics will hardly make the leap in quality that will take them to the glory of the Association and will fall prey to teams with more ‘fangs’.

3- Is Durant the piece the Celtics need for the championship?
No. The Celtics already reinforced their main need, which was point guard, with the acquisition of Malcolm Brogdon. They also added another forward, capable of scoring from distance, like Danilo Gallinari. So why the focus on Kevin Durant?

First of all, Boston and Brooklyn are ‘buddy’ teams. In 2013, the Celtics traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets in exchange for draft picks, which ended up eventually becoming Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

The ‘problem’ lies in the fact that, in order to get via trade Durant, you quite possibly have to part with Brown. Why now do you get out of him?

Well, even though he is eligible for a three-year, $111 million extension, Brown is expected to decline such an option. Obviously, free agency is in his best interest. Does that mean the Celtics don’t want to pay him more? Good question, but the forward would be a free agent in 2024.

But I conclude with the following question: would the Celtics have won this season’s Finals against the Warriors with Durant? That’s exactly what I thought, and that’s why Boston is looking at all its options, including trying to add one of the best 20 players in basketball history to its roster.